Monzo - Frozen Account

eskbanker

Mandy278 said:

Perhaps it might be more useful to people not to focus on their spelling etc and maybe try and help and if you cannot offer a constructive opinion or offer help then I would not bother really.  

That'll be why I didn't focus on spelling (merely making a clearly incidental correction in passing) but offered constructive help to any posters who might have taken your comment at face value and erroneously believed that your partner's experiences could legitimately be generalised as always being applicable for all....

Mandy278

cloud_dog said:

The reason eskbanker says that we cannot be definitive on this is that if the banking organisation thought, for example, the payment was related to money laundering, they would not return the money to the originating payee, i.e. money launderer, irrespective of the transaction method used.  So, we cannot be definitive across all scenarios but, you can be definite that in your scenario that was the definitive action taken.

i would disagree, how would they know whether it was to do with money laundering or buying a shed load of drugs from Amsterdam?  It is a frozen/suspended/closed account and therefore any payment would be returned.  Think really I have had the answer I wanted.  However, Monzo have not heard the end of this, will let them do their thing and go from there.  

colsten

Mandy278 said:

i would disagree, how would they know whether it was to do with money laundering or buying a shed load of drugs from Amsterdam?

I wouldn't underestimate what banks, and the organisations supporting banks in the AML investigations, know, and share amongst themselves.

cloud_dog

Mandy278 said:

cloud_dog said:

The reason eskbanker says that we cannot be definitive on this is that if the banking organisation thought, for example, the payment was related to money laundering, they would not return the money to the originating payee, i.e. money launderer, irrespective of the transaction method used.  So, we cannot be definitive across all scenarios but, you can be definite that in your scenario that was the definitive action taken.

i would disagree, how would they know whether it was to do with money laundering or buying a shed load of drugs from Amsterdam?  It is a 

frozen/suspended/closed account and therefore any payment would be returned.  Think really I have had the answer I wanted.  However, Monzo have not heard the end of this, will let them do their thing and go from there.  

It's ok for you to disagree but, it won't alter reality.

Re your comment on frozen/suspended/closed, I think you are viewing it back to front, i.e. a payment made in to an account in one of those states is very likely to be returned but, the reality is that it is the payment that caused freeze/suspended/closure of the account, with the action taken dependant on the results of the investigations.

fenwick458

I am self employed, and I work with loads of self employed people. nearly all of them use personal current accounts, very few pay for a business account. everyone seems to get away with it, I think you'd have to put over 100k /year through a personal account for them to realise it was a business account and ask you to change it.
anyway, this is straying off the topic a bit, theirs no way Monzo can freeze your account for not following their T&C's

eskbanker

fenwick458 said:

I am self employed, and I work with loads of self employed people. nearly all of them use personal current accounts, very few pay for a business account. everyone seems to get away with it

Officer: Do you know you were speeding there?
Driver: Ah, but others were too!
Officer: 

sassy_one

Official complaint will prove fruitless.

Given the fact he has using a personal account for business use, HMRC payment for one example, they will not find in your favour.

Saying that, I suspect there is other activity on the account which we here do not or have not been told, as banks do not just freeze accounts, it's not in their interests and they do not get to keep the money in the accounts themselves, its placed into a holding account.

Regardless, if you read the terms and conditions you'll see banks can end a facility at anytime they want to, without reason with notice.
Technically, the account is open still, just frozen.

Either way, this whole no suspicious transactions have been in or out of the account is very watered down.

sassy_one

fenwick458 said:

I am self employed, and I work with loads of self employed people. nearly all of them use personal current accounts, very few pay for a business account. everyone seems to get away with it, I think you'd have to put over 100k /year through a personal account for them to realise it was a business account and ask you to change it.
anyway, this is straying off the topic a bit, theirs no way Monzo can freeze your account for not following their T&C's

Just because Paul gets away with it doesn't mean Peter will.
In fact, doing something increases the risk of detection.

Using a personal account to operate business through is a breach of terms and conditions, might find you get away with it for a few months, a few years even, but you'll always be at risk of one day your account being frozen.

Not the wisest move.

colsten

fenwick458 said:

nearly all of them use personal current accounts, very few pay for a business account. 

There is at least one business account which is free of charge, provided by Starling.

But even having to pay is no good excuse for breaching T&Cs. In the end, they just risk having their account blocked and not having access to any money. 

sheramber

fenwick458 said:

I am self employed, and I work with loads of self employed people. nearly all of them use personal current accounts, very few pay for a business account. everyone seems to get away with it, I think you'd have to put over 100k /year through a personal account for them to realise it was a business account and ask you to change it.
anyway, this is straying off the topic a bit, theirs no way Monzo can freeze your account for not following their T&C's

The fact that a payment of the SISS  was received might just alert the bank that the account was being used for business payments.